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I realized we’re very close to be “evaluated” (when I say ‘we’ I mean all of us, writers/readers/users/moderators/curious/Etc.)

What did we do right/wrong so far? What can we do to make it better (or worse?)

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Reset to default
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If you want the site to do better: ask more question!

Specifically, ask more questions you mom would have when using a Mac or somebody coming from Windows, as they are likely to have lots of questions!

But anyway, questions are the life blood of any site, without there's nothing to answer and you can't get a group of avid users. So ask away, I would say!

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    This. We're definitely short on good "newbie" questions, probably because most everyone is highly experienced with Apple products.
    – Kyle Cronin
    Commented Nov 9, 2010 at 4:18
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    What would be classed as a "newbie" question?
    – JFW
    Commented Nov 18, 2010 at 14:09
  • Mostly question that ask how can I do X with Y? But X has to be a task most regular users would know how to perform or Y has to be a popular program
    – Ivo Flipse
    Commented Nov 19, 2010 at 11:17
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we need more active user to answer difficult question we have some question with no answer or even with no comment. and I think if superuser's pro come to this site this problem will be solved.

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    We need to be more mindful of our spelling and grammar.
    – Moshe
    Commented Nov 22, 2010 at 1:03
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I don't own a Mac, but I do own an iPhone.

Frankly, I dislike that my iPhone questions get drowned in so much Mac "noise". I preferred to have iPhone questions in the now-closed "gadgets" site because it made so much more sense to discuss smartphones in one place (there) and computers in another (here), but the decision was made. Smartphone questions are also being posted on SuperUser but only some of them are closed by the moderators - this inconsistency disturbs me.

Given that this Mac site exists, I also dislike that there are so many Mac questions over at SuperUser. Those aren't getting closed. That's another inconsistency that disturbs me.

Things are too muddy this way.

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  • +1 No interest in Mac stuff either, but only iPhone/iTunes.
    – BQ.
    Commented Nov 19, 2010 at 17:10
  • There is a disturbance in the force.
    – Martin Marconcini
    Commented Nov 19, 2010 at 21:01
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    I hardly think that iPhone questions are drowned - 'iphone' is the top tag on the site by a wide margin, and 'ipad', 'itunes', and 'ipod-touch' are the 3rd, 4th, and 5th most used tags. I will agree that by having two places to ask Mac question (here and SuperUser) it can get a little muddy, I still think that it can work.
    – Kyle Cronin
    Commented Nov 20, 2010 at 2:14
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    Smartphone questions unless they directly relate to a computer don't belong on Super User. If you want to ignore the Mac stuff, just put mac and osx on your ignored tags. I've always been more worried about low quality iPhone noise (that thankfully has never materialized).
    – Chealion
    Commented Nov 21, 2010 at 18:01
  • @torbengb, @BJQ: As for the "Mac noise", use ignored tags as Chealion said. If you don't want to see those questions at all, check the Hide Ignored Tags option in your prefs. I don't like the Super User inconstancies either; for now I'm personally posting all questions that fit on the Apple to the Apple site.
    – Jonik
    Commented Dec 2, 2010 at 10:33
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    Yep, the ignore tags are useful, and I use them. However, I'd really need a "not-tag", i.e. hide everything that's NOT tagged iPhone or iOS. Otherwise I'd have to put every conceivable tag on my ignore list except those tags that are relevant for the iPhone. And then check hide-ignored.
    – Torben Gundtofte-Bruun
    Commented Dec 2, 2010 at 10:42
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iOS and Mac OS are pretty different. I find this community far superior to the other ones online, simply because of the lack of reverence for the platform. I get good data here, as if Apple made tools, albeit damn good ones, as opposed to being gifts from on high. IPhones might have a lot of questions, but there are far fewer answers, since you are to use them "in ignorance, by sufferance". I think it's good data. and moreover, if ubuntu has it's own stackexchange, then so should Apple. More of a need in fact, this is a closed source unix variant. You'd think you could just ask, but... taking a look at the lost souls howling their questions into the icy void on the apple forums, with threads marked "closed but no solution"... There is a future here.

What happens if this gets shut down? Can we have our answers?

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One of the issues I have with the Q&A so far is how much conjecture is thrown around. Look at how many Answers start with phrases like "I think", "I would think", "I would guess" on Questions that are clearly not subjective. How do you motivate people to include references or actual data in their Answers?

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    I would agree, except from my recent experience, Apple is not only closed source, but more closed than most. It simply is hard to give definitive answers.
    – chiggsy
    Commented Dec 1, 2010 at 17:37

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